Scribd
Upload
22 views

Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge: The Exeter Book, The Manuscript in Which "The Seafarer" Is Found, Was Used and

The speaker announces that he will make a song about his suffering endured while traveling the ocean in winter. He recalls the terrible cold, loneliness, and hearing seabirds instead of people in the mead hall. His spirit is troubled by the weather but urges him to endure so he can seek a foreign homeland. In spring, the cry of the cuckoo makes him feel restless and prompts another journey. He knows worldly riches will not last after death and it is through the praise of the living that one can hope to live forever. The speaker says people should work hard against the devil to be remembered and live with angels after death. He tells us to fear God above all.

Uploaded by

mark louie gallardo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
22 views

Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge: The Exeter Book, The Manuscript in Which "The Seafarer" Is Found, Was Used and

The speaker announces that he will make a song about his suffering endured while traveling the ocean in winter. He recalls the terrible cold, loneliness, and hearing seabirds instead of people in the mead hall. His spirit is troubled by the weather but urges him to endure so he can seek a foreign homeland. In spring, the cry of the cuckoo makes him feel restless and prompts another journey. He knows worldly riches will not last after death and it is through the praise of the living that one can hope to live forever. The speaker says people should work hard against the devil to be remembered and live with angels after death. He tells us to fear God above all.

Uploaded by

mark louie gallardo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The speaker of "The Seafarer" announces that he can make a true song about himself

and the suffering he has endured while traveling over the ocean in the middle of winter.
He remembers terrible cold and loneliness, and hearing the sounds of seabirds instead
of the mead hall. This life of hardship is one about which the comfortable "city dwellers"
know nothing. They'll never understand his suffering, poor guy. The weather worsens as
snow and hail fall. His spirit is troubled, urging him to endure the harsh conditions on the
winter sea so that he can seek a faraway "foreign" homeland.
Ah, the arrival of spring should help, right? Wrong. It only provokes more wanderlust in
the speaker. The cry of the cuckoo, a sign of warmer weather, makes our speaker feel
downright down in the dumps. It tells him it's time for yet another journey. The
Seafarer's spirit leaps out of his chest and soars all over the world, then returns to him
unsatisfied.
He knows the world's riches will not last, since everyone dies and you can't take your
possessions with you. Because it's only through the praise of the living after one's death
that a person can hope to live forever, people should fight hard against the devil so their
bravery will be remembered after their death. That way, they can live forever with the
angels. Sweet deal.
The days of earthly glory are over, the speaker tells us, because the wealthy and
powerful civilizations have fallen. The party's over, and the weak have inherited the
earth. Glory and nobility have faded just like an aging person, whose body and senses
fail. No matter how much we try to comfort the dead and ourselves with gold, it won't
work because a sinful soul can't take his gold with him after death. He's painting quite
the pretty picture, this seafarer guy.
So what's the takeaway point here? Our speaker tells us that it's important to fear God,
who created the whole world, and before whom it stands still. Only a fool does not fear
God: he will meet his death unprepared. In order to avoid this, a man has to live humbly,
control his passions, keep his word, and be fair to both friends and enemies. A man
should think about his earthly life, focus on the heavenly home that awaits him, and how
to get there. In fact, our speaker suggests, we should all work hard to get to the eternal
life, where joy awaits us, thank God, indeed.

Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge


The Exeter Book, the manuscript in which "The Seafarer" is found, was used and
abused over the course of its history as everything from a cutting board to a coaster for
a beer mug. It was also damaged in a fire. Shmoop hopes you're nicer to your books.
(Cited in source.)
The Exeter Book was given to the Exeter Cathedral Library by the Bishop of Exeter,
Leofric in the eleventh century. It's still there to this day, so if you're willing to fly all the
way to England, you just might get a glimpse. (Source.)
Our speaker tells us right off the that bat he's going to "make a true song" about himself.
Sounds pretty straightforward and autobiographical, right? We're primed and ready for
the story of his life. Except, the problem is, we never really get it.
All we truly know about our speaker is that he's spent a whole boatload of time out on
the open sea in the middle of terrible winter weather. We know he feels restless, sad,
and pretty darn lonely most of the time. But the weird thing is, it's never quite
clear why he lives this life. Why does he always have this urge to travel? Why does he
refer to himself living in the "paths of exile"? Did he commit a crime? Is he fleeing a
war? Or hey, maybe he's just a deep-sea fisherman. Anything's possible, right?
At certain points in the poem, the speaker refers to the "sea-weary man," or "those who
travel the paths of the ocean." At this point we know he's talking about himself. But
these vague terms also broaden his scope a bit. He seems to be claiming that everyone
who has experienced what he has feels just the same way and understands just the
same things he does. So then this isn't just an autobiography. It's much more universal
than that.
So what does this speaker, along with all the other sea-weary men know? What's he
trying to share with us? Well, the speaker claims that those who have traveled the paths
of exile understand that everything in this world is fleeting: gold, friends, even whole
civilizations eventually pass away with time. Knowing this, the speaker can't and won't
take pleasure in such things. He knows from experience – the only stable thing in life is
God.
And there's the kicker. The most important thing we can learn about our speaker in this
poem is not that he's a traveler, but that he is deeply religious. Sure, he may reallybe a
seafarer, but he's also a pilgrim, and his story is about his own spiritualjourney as much
as his physical one.

You might also like